1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to integrated telecommunications and multimedia systems and applications and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for integrating provider video content with phone call communications in real time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Television (or “TV”) services which provide live video or recorded video content through channels such as over air broadcasts, cable TV systems, and satellite TV systems (“provider video content” or “TV style video content”) are well known. Over air broadcasts have been offered for decades, but typically only permit access to a few channels (five to ten). Cable TV and satellite systems have grown in popularity over the past few decades and typically offer a greater number of channels, in the range of tens or hundreds, as well as interactive services aimed at improving aspects of the user's viewing experience such as recording and playback and premium content for purchase. Recently, access to TV style video content has additionally been availed through the Internet, where such video can often be streamed for real time viewing and/or downloaded for subsequent viewing. On the Internet, many of the service enhancements which have been introduced by Cable TV and satellite systems are present in some form. In addition, due to the nature of the Internet and its delivery protocols, there remain opportunities to further enhance or supplement TV style video content provided over the Internet.
Similarly, various telephone and voice communication services which facilitate remote audio or audio/video communications (“phone call” or “phone call communications”) over wired or wireless networks are well established. Traditional wired telephone networks date back more than a century and, more recently, wireless networks and Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) have introduced new communication protocols which provide increased functionality and often decrease costs. Notably, the rise in phone call communications through VoIP (and thus over the Internet) has largely coincided with the rise in the delivery of provider video content delivered over the Internet. A problem which still exists, however, is phone call communications and provider video content have remained largely separate services, unable to provide users with enhanced, integrated functionality. While users in remote locations can engage in a phone call and watch the same provider video content from the same source, the users cannot participate in an service wherein their phone call and provider video content viewing are integrated and synchronized together. Thus, there remains a need for a method and apparatus which could provide a coviewing system that would allow users in remote locations to engage in a phone call which was integrated with and occurring in conjunction with the viewing of the same provider video content. It would be helpful if such a coviewing system was structured to enable the synchronization of the video content being viewed by each user. It would be additionally desirable for such a coviewing system was structured to utilize smart echo cancellation which simultaneously accounted for audio from the provider video content and from the phone call.
The Applicant's invention described herein provides for a system adapted to allow coviewing of provider video content such that phone call communications between a plurality of users has been integrated with a provider video content viewing session. The primary components of Applicant's method and apparatus for coviewing include a coviewing control system and a plurality of user interfaces which include audio and video inputs and audio and video outputs. When in operation, the method and apparatus for coviewing allows users in remote locations to engage in an phone call and provider video content viewing session simultaneously, whereby the phone call communications and provider video content have been integrated into a unified and synchronized interface to be broadcast by a output device simultaneously. As a result, many of the limitations imposed by the prior art are removed.